The following lists—aligned with principles related to using generative AI tools with responsibility, transparency, and documentation—provide some initial ideas for ways to use AI tools in class.

Practices for Promoting Critical Awareness of Generative AI Tools

Engage student interest, knowledge, and curiosity about AI tools and their relationship to their course work through discussion or activities. Consider these topics:

• Discuss the value of student thinking and analysis independent of AI-generated content, as well as ways AI tools might facilitate student thinking and analysis
• Discuss the nature of learning (e.g., connecting new knowledge with existing knowledge, recognizing what one doesn’t know, being challenged) and how generative AI tools might affect that process
• Discuss the benefits and downsides of using generativeAI tools in the context of learning generally. 
• Discuss the benefits and downsides of using generative AI tools in the context of writing and communication.
• Discuss the difference between approaching generative AI tools as a consumer and as a critical user.
• Brainstorm specific ways generative AI tools might aid learning and/or writing and communication.

 

Analyze the upsides and downsides of generative AI tools as content generators

• Assess the correctness and quality of content produced by generative AI tools.
• Identify the ways AI-generated content may be incorrect, biased, or perhaps offensive.

 

Remind students of your AI tool policy

• List the policy on project instructions and discuss the policy in light of assignments and other activities
• Brainstorm ways to use generative AI tools responsibly, transparently, and with appropriate documentation for each project or assignment.

 

Consider experimenting with generative AI tool use as an aid for learning and writing/communicating

• Discuss and practice prompt composition. 
• Discuss and practice planning rhetorically appropriate content.
• Discuss using generative AI tools to provide “peer” feedback on drafts.

 

Practices for Facilitating Responsible Generative AI Tool Use

Consider co-creating a set of AI-tool best practices with students that will serve as guidelines for generative AI tool use in the course.

 

Discuss the ethical pitfalls of AI tools

• Discuss the ways generative AI tools may “hallucinate” (create, make up) false facts and sources
• Discuss bias and stereotypes in generative AI responses
• Discuss issues of copyright and intellectual property

 

Engage student interest, knowledge, and curiosity about generative AI tools and their relationship to their course work through discussion or activities. Consider these topics:

• Discuss the importance of existing norms of academic and professional expectations—e.g., the reasons for and importance of citation practices.
• Discuss the question of who decides whether the content AI tools produce is correct, good, feasible, or ethical.
• Discuss what students see as responsible use of AI tools in the classroom and in the workplace.

 

Practices Facilitating Transparent AI Tool Use

Provide students with a template for acknowledging the use of generative AI tools in their course work. Here’s an example from Western Michigan’s “AI in the Syllabus” resource: 

AI Acknowledgement: For every assignment submission, you will include a 150-300 word acknowledgment. Your acknowledgement should include, 1. The identification of the tool(s) you used, 2. An explanation of why you decided to use the tool(s), 3. A description of how you used the tool(s) to manage assignment requirements, and 4. A reflection on your experience using the tool, exploring what worked or didn’t, and acknowledging limitations of the tool for this assignment, potential biases, etc. If you opt not to use AI tools, when not required, please use the ‘AI Acknowledgement’ to highlight your non-AI approach and/or your reasons for deciding not to use certain tools.

 

Consider having students submit records of their generative AI tool use (for example, copies of their ChatGPT chats or of their DALL-E prompt) as process documents.

 

Practices Supporting Generative AI Tool Use Documentation

Provide students with a template for documenting content produced by AI tools. 

• Here’s an example from Western Michigan’s “AI in the Syllabus” resource: 

AI Citation Format: Title of AI Tool. Prompt or brief description of topic of search depending on tool. Date of creation. 

• APA provides guidance here: https://apastyle.apa.org/blog/how-to-cite-chatgpt
• MLA provides guidance here: https://style.mla.org/citing-generative-ai/

 

Situate AI documentation within established documentation and citation practices. 

• In most cases, AI-generated content should be treated as content produced by someone other than the student, and therefore needs to be quoted/paraphrased/summarized and documented. 
• In other cases, you may decide that AI-generated content can form all or much of a particular artifact without direct quotation/paraphrasing/summarizing; in that case, the fact of using AI-generated content should be clearly stated.

 

Other Practices Suggested by WCP Faculty

Align assessment practices with new assignment design (Dori Coblentz)

• Rethink the evaluation criteria for your assignments. For example, rather than assessing based solely on a research paper’s topic, organization, use of evidence, etc., consider grading on how well they can choose an appropriate methodology for their topic, unique questions or other contributions, gap statements, and other other high-level activities such as the “alignment of the research question, theories used, methods used, and results” (Gimpel et al 35). 
• Supplement out-of-class writing (e.g. critical reflections appended to assignments) with verbal interactions and assignments. For example, consider asking students to talk you through their projects, run meetings, give presentations with substantive Q&A elements, or otherwise demonstrate knowledge in spontaneous, interpersonal ways. 

Conduct peer-review with large-language models (Zita Hüsing)

• Step 1: Students conduct a peer-review of a draft of an assignment with their peers and provide feedback in written form
• Step 2: Students generate feedback with an AI tool
• Step 3: Students compare the feedback of theirs peers to the feedback from the AI to apply the most useful ideas while learning to engage critically with the AI results

 

Have a suggested practice to add to the list? Submit it using this survey.